When you have a feeling, do you share it regardless of your audience? Do you ever scream as loud as you can because the ball you were playing with rolled away? Would you be embarrassed to cry in front of a stranger because I took a dirty sock out of your mouth that you were sucking on? Do you share every emotion you have with the people around you, or do you censor yourself in fear of what people would think if you let them know just how mad it makes you that they won’t share their cookie?

As an adult, I feel like most of us filter our communication to accommodate others primarily because we fear how we might be judged. Sure, maybe you are being considerate by not demanding to try on your friend’s shoes, or insisting they put a toy in their mouth that you just had in yours, but maybe what we are really doing is protecting ourselves.

When we expose our deepest emotions and desires, it makes us vulnerable and often embarrassed. To let someone know how you really feel about something means that you can’t hide behind social convention. I personally would rather suppress my emotions deep into the bowels of my soul constipating my psyche with years of impacted crap. Am I eventually going to be in need for some emotional ex lax?? Probably… but until I implode, I think I will just hold it all in.

A baby on the other hand doesn’t give a flying fuck in a rolling doughnut what you think about them. They have a freedom in expressing themselves that I find truly inspiring. If The Munch has a feeling, she will let me know regardless of who she is in front of. She has no shame and I feel I have a lot to learn from how uninhibited she is. So the next time we are hanging out and you start to bore me, I think I am going to lay on the floor, have a tantrum, and cry.

“Nooooooo! I don’t want t hear that story! You have already told me that one!”